“Thus, in seven years, fever has fallen on much more than a tithe of the inhabitants,—choosing its victims here, as elsewhere, in the manhood of life, and compelling the citizens of Dundee to pay a tax frightful in the amount of personal sufferings and family bereavements.
“But it were a mistake to imagine that the sufferings and death of so many citizens are the only tithes which fever has compelled us to pay during the last seven years. Put wholly aside the details of domestic woe and personal suffering which 11,808 cases of fever have introduced into the families of Dundee in these seven years—omit all reckoning of the watching, want, and wretchedness, wrapped up in so many cases of acute disease, and the family bereavements implied in these 1,312 death—and let us view for a moment our fellow-creatures but as so many machines suspended from work by the derangement or destruction of the human machinery, that we may learn something of the probable money loss incurred by fever in these seven years.
“From Dr. Southwood Smith, the highest authority on these subjects, we learn that fully one-half of the cases of fever occur in the prime of life, when men are most useful either to their families or to society. Deducting then the 1,312 deaths from the whole number of cases, there will remain 10,496 cases of fever, the one-half of whom, at least, were adults,—that is, 5,248 persons in the prime of life, very many of them heads of families, had fever in these seven years. Now, the average period fever detains a patient from work, according to the same authority, is six weeks. Let us take the earnings in health of these adults at the average of 8s. weekly; and the loss of wages to these 5,248 adults, by six weeks’ fever, amounts to 12,595l.; and this, after excluding all under age, and all the deaths. But these cases, whether treated at home or at the infirmary, must be also loaded with the expense of medical treatment, which is estimated in our infirmary reports at 1l. to each case, that is, 5,248l. must he added to the loss by wages. But 5,248 cases of those under age remain to be accounted for; and, as fever rarely attacks mere children, but chiefly those either in manhood or approaching manhood, we may estimate the loss of their labour at the one-half of the adults, or 6,297l. 12s., and the expense of attendance and recovery at one-half also, or 2,624l.
“But how shall we estimate the pecuniary loss of 1,312 deaths? It seems a strange thing to go about estimating the money value of that which money did not give, and cannot restore when taken away; yet as there are those who understand better a profit and loss account than the arguments of religion and humanity, we shall attempt to estimate the money loss of these 1,312 deaths by fever.
“At least one-half, or 656 of these deaths, were deaths of adults, and very many of them heads of families, of which the 337 widows in St. David’s parish afford melancholy evidence.”
He then refers to an estimate made by Mr. M’Culloch, who, viewing a human being as a productive machine, reared to last a certain time, and to return so much more than he costs, estimates a full-grown workman just, arrived at maturity as having 300l. of capital invested in him. At the actual cost of maintaining and training a pauper child in England at the school in Norwood, 4s. 6d. per week, he will have had expended upon him at 21 years of age, 245l., or at 30 years, 350l.; but he supposes—
“The money value of these male and female adults to be just the one-half of this, or 150l., which makes the loss, by the premature death of these 656 adults, to be 98,400l.; and, if the remaining 656 under the age of maturity, yet approaching it, be taken at the half of the adults, or 75l. each, we have a loss of 49,200l. more; to which, if we add 1l. a-piece, or 1,312l. in all, for attendance and medical expenses, the Fever Bill of Dundee, during the last seven years, will stand as follows:—
| Fever Bill of Dundee from 1833 to 1839. | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| £. | s. | d. | |
| Loss of labour for six weeks of 5,248 adults at 8s. a-week | 12,595 | 0 | 0 |
| Attendance, medicine at home or infirmary, at 1l. each | 5,248 | 0 | 0 |
| Loss of labour for six weeks of 5,248 under age, at 4s. a-week | 6,297 | 12 | 0 |
| Expense of treatment of the above at infirmary or home, at 10s. a-piece | 2,624 | 0 | 0 |
| Loss by death of 656 adults, at 150l. each. | 98,400 | 0 | 0 |
| Loss by 656 deaths under age, at 75l. a-piece | 49,200 | 0 | 0 |
| Treatment of 1,312 cases, at 1l. each | 1,312 | 0 | 0 |
| £175,676 | 12 | 0 | |
| Or 25,096l. 13s. per annum. | |||
“The poor, we are told, we shall always have with us, and so with disease and death. Yet the evils, both of poverty and disease, come in very different measures to different communities. As there is a poverty that is self-inflicted, and may be self-removed, so there is a certain amount of disease and annual mortality in every city that is self-inflicted; and the community that does not strive, by every available means, to reduce its disease and mortality bills to the lowest sum of human suffering, and the lowest rate of annual mortality, is as guilty of suicide as the individual who, Judas like, takes with his own hands the life God has given, and hurries unbidden into the presence of his Judge. The fever bills of the Scottish towns, contrasted with those of the English commercial towns, declare too plainly that man has not yet done his part in Dundee to avert this scourge of society; and, while fever is undoubtedly to be regarded as the visitation of God, it is also to be regarded as the visitation of God for the sin of neglecting a population fallen in character and habits.
In the following table are given the deaths in Dundee in seven years, and the rate to the population,—supposing the inhabitants in 1831 to have been 45,355 souls, and to have increased about 2000 annually, until 1839, when from bad trade the increase was checked:—